The new variety of blackcurrant, Ribes nigrum, was created during the course of a planned plant-breeding program carried out at Lincoln, New Zealand. The new variety was selected from a population of seedlings derived from a controlled cross that was made in 1998, between L20 (unpatented), the seed parent, and L31 (unpatented) the pollen parent. Both parents originated from the breeding program in New Zealand.
Seed from the cross was sown in the field in 1999, in Canterbury, New Zealand. The original plant of the new variety was selected during the 2000-2001 summer.
The new variety was asexually reproduced at Lincoln, New Zealand as hardwood cuttings in winter 2001 and planted into a selection plot for further evaluation. The resulting plants propagated true to type, demonstrating that the characteristics of the new variety are stable and are transmitted without change through succeeding generations.
The new variety is able to be distinguished from its parents on the basis of flowering time. It flowers earlier than both L20 and L31. L20 is resistant to gall mite, the new variety is susceptible. The titratable acidity levels are higher in fruit of the new variety than levels in both L20 and L31. The new variety has also been observed to display less glossy leaves, and less of an upright and vigorous growth habit, compared with the blackcurrant variety Magnus. The new variety flowered earlier and yielded more fruit than Magnus. In comparison with other blackcurrant varieties grown in New Zealand, Bed Ard and Ben Rua, the new variety has been observed to flower earlier than either variety.